Bumped from Cunard Cruise

[Nm hehappysailing]

On 8/13/2024 at 8:41 PM, david63 said:

How will you know who they are and where they are. I doubt that anyone on the ship would know what has happened.

 

It could be that they were offered a significant upgrade to move.

Just from original cabin number I had chosen - im now about 10 cabins further down the corridor 

[tim_london0]

2 hours ago, exlondoner said:

Much, much easier to get someone else to do the work, and sort out any hassles. Just like having someone cut your toe nails.

until the TA goes bust, half way through the process of booking your holiday 

 

(and yes, as has already been said the money should be protected by some bonded scheme or whatever, but all that gets you is your money back, not your promised holiday)

[tim_london0]

1 hour ago, S1971 said:

 

Until you have a problem of course, then it becomes very difficult to actually speak to someone.

 

A TA takes that stress away, for me anyway.

 

what stress?, it's fun self booking 😀

 

and why would I have a problem?

 

one of my own making, worst case as I've only paid a small deposit I can walk away

 

one of the cruise company's making: as was proven during Covid having a TA in chain can actually make that worse for customers.

[Victoria2]

42 minutes ago, tim_london0 said:

what stress?, it's fun self booking 😀

 

and why would I have a problem?

 

one of my own making, worst case as I've only paid a small deposit I can walk away

 

one of the cruise company's making: as was proven during Covid having a TA in chain can actually make that worse for customers.

It can also be very providential to have a superb TA who is totally on the ball with every aspect of cruising.

 

There are poor TAs; there are OK TAs but then there are brilliant Cruise TAs but sadly, you won't know which one you have until 'things go whatsit up' and I think there will be many last week for whom 'things' went 'whatsit up'!

 

When you find your Diamond, you hang onto him/her knowing you have someone in your corner who you can trust to have your interests at heart and will work their socks off for you.

 

We have our Diamond and everyone I introduce him to, agrees.

 

 

Edited September 8 by Victoria2
got my homophones in a tangle!!

[david,Mississauga]

1 hour ago, Victoria2 said:

It can also be very providential to have a superb TA who is totally on the ball with every aspect of cruising.

 

There are poor TAs; there are OK TAs but then there are brilliant Cruise TAs but sadly, you won't know which one you have until 'things go whatsit up' and I think there will be many last week for whom 'things' went 'whatsit up'!

 

When you find your Diamond, you hang onto him/her knowing you have someone in your corner who you can trust to have your interests at heart and will work their socks off for you.

 

We have our Diamond and everyone I introduce him to, agrees.

 

 

 

My experience has been the same as that of Victoria2.  I am working with my fourth travel agent in 51 years.  Why am I with a fourth?  The previous three retired.  I have recommend all of my TAs to friends and relatives and all have been happy loyal customers.  

[Wonky]

7 hours ago, tim_london0 said:

until the TA goes bust, half way through the process of booking your holiday 

 

(and yes, as has already been said the money should be protected by some bonded scheme or whatever, but all that gets you is your money back, not your promised holiday)

This actually happened to me and the cruise line took over the booking.

[D&N]

9 hours ago, tim_london0 said:

as was proven during Covid having a TA in chain can actually make that worse for customers.

Really?

Not our experience! Ours was brilliant.

 

Also: "until the TA goes bust, half way through the process of booking your holiday"

If your TA never actually handles your cash but your payment goes directly to the cruise line, what difference would that make?

[tim_london0]

8 hours ago, D&N said:

Really?

Not our experience! Ours was brilliant.

 

Also: "until the TA goes bust, half way through the process of booking your holiday"

If your TA never actually handles your cash but your payment goes directly to the cruise line, what difference would that make?

Then you were lucky.

 

Tens of thousands (perhaps hundreds of thousands) of people found out that having a TA in the loop was bad news when Covid caused their holiday/flight to be cancelled and operators decided to try to fob everyone off with deferred refunds.  Tying to resist this was a game of TA saying "nothing to do with us, complain to the operator", and the operator saying "your contract is with the TA contact them", back to stage 1 ... rinse and repeat.

[Victoria2]

1 hour ago, tim_london0 said:

Then you were lucky.

 

Tens of thousands (perhaps hundreds of thousands) of people found out that having a TA in the loop was bad news when Covid caused their holiday/flight to be cancelled and operators decided to try to fob everyone off with deferred refunds.  Tying to resist this was a game of TA saying "nothing to do with us, complain to the operator", and the operator saying "your contract is with the TA contact them", back to stage 1 ... rinse and repeat.

Then it's quite obvious, the thousands affected hadn't got a decent TA.

 

Ours ended up advising many of those affected. They weren't clients of his but he helped any who asked for his advice.

 

They are clients now! 👍

[exlondoner]

1 hour ago, tim_london0 said:

Then you were lucky.

 

Tens of thousands (perhaps hundreds of thousands) of people found out that having a TA in the loop was bad news when Covid caused their holiday/flight to be cancelled and operators decided to try to fob everyone off with deferred refunds.  Tying to resist this was a game of TA saying "nothing to do with us, complain to the operator", and the operator saying "your contract is with the TA contact them", back to stage 1 ... rinse and repeat.

And were those who had booked directly with Cunard being rung up by them and told ‘We owe you lots of money. It’ll be in your account tomorrow’? Seems unlikely.

[tacticalbanjo]

Booking direct doesn't give you any guarantee of the level of customer service as I found out earlier this year. All the call centre want to do is fob you off and I had to refuse to hang up for over an hour before a supervisor would even speak to me.

 

The reality is that customer service often isn't what it used to be. It doesn't actively bring in money so it's just a cost on the balance sheet to most businesses and gets cut at every opportunity.

 

I'm pretty happy with my current cruise TA and will probably book everything through them in future.

[S1971]

9 hours ago, tim_london0 said:

Then you were lucky.

 

Tens of thousands (perhaps hundreds of thousands) of people found out that having a TA in the loop was bad news when Covid caused their holiday/flight to be cancelled and operators decided to try to fob everyone off with deferred refunds.  Tying to resist this was a game of TA saying "nothing to do with us, complain to the operator", and the operator saying "your contract is with the TA contact them", back to stage 1 ... rinse and repeat.

 

I seem to recall similar happened with those who booked directly with the cruiselines.

 

Given these were unprecedented times, both cruiselines and TA done remarkably well all things considered.

 

[WantedOnVoyage]

As a happily (and how!) retired "travel professional" (1979-2020) after 41 years, I "could not possibly comment" on this rather astonishing flurry of comments.

 

Except to suggest the choice to forgo the services of a travel agent as one might choose to dispense with an estate agent, plumber, mechanic or doctor is always yours.  It's why they invented the internet... the ability to "do it all" as long as Mr. Google tells you can. And you believe it, too. 

[tim_london0]

On 9/9/2024 at 8:04 AM, exlondoner said:

And were those who had booked directly with Cunard being rung up by them and told ‘We owe you lots of money. It’ll be in your account tomorrow’? Seems unlikely.

Perhaps not, but at least they only had one company to deal with

[tim_london0]

On 9/9/2024 at 7:48 AM, Victoria2 said:

Then it's quite obvious, the thousands affected hadn't got a decent TA.

 

Ours ended up advising many of those affected. They weren't clients of his but he helped any who asked for his advice.

 

They are clients now! 👍

Quite,

 

but I didn't ask why should one not be using a TA that has been well recommend to them. 

 

I asked, why do people (here) think that it's normal for others to have just gone and booked this holiday though an everyday TA.  Most of which are just resellers of bucket and spade holiday from a brochure.

 

Most people don't have a recommendation for a great TA.  The just respond to advertising campaigns from majors brands (such as still exist)

[tim_london0]

12 hours ago, WantedOnVoyage said:

As a happily (and how!) retired "travel professional" (1979-2020) after 41 years, I "could not possibly comment" on this rather astonishing flurry of comments.

 

Except to suggest the choice to forgo the services of a travel agent as one might choose to dispense with an estate agent, plumber, mechanic or doctor is always yours.  It's why they invented the internet... the ability to "do it all" as long as Mr. Google tells you can. And you believe it, too. 

And I find that comparison quite astonishing, on a rate of 1-10 as to the impossibility of doing those things for yourself, those alternative things rate a 9 or a 10.

 

the need for a TA to book a package holiday plus (possible) air connections rate a 1.

 

Obviously, if I am booking a bespoke package of individual ground arrangements then using a TA is helpful (though I have to say that my being able to find one who will do this much below luxury level has proved difficult), 

 

but we are not discussing that scenario here.

 

 

[Victoria2]

Just now, tim_london0 said:

Quite,

 

but I didn't ask why should one not be using a TA that has been well recommend to them. 

 

I asked, why do people (here) think that it's normal for others to have just gone and booked this holiday though an everyday TA.  Most of which are just resellers of bucket and spade holiday from a brochure.

 

Most people don't have a recommendation for a great TA.  The just respond to advertising campaigns from majors brands (such as still exist)

You certainly didn't and with no mention of any specifics and definitely no mention of 'recommended' TAs or 'everyday' TAs. In fact, you were rather scathing in your generalisation of 'TAs'.

 

 

[exlondoner]

28 minutes ago, tim_london0 said:

Perhaps not, but at least they only had one company to deal with

I dealt solely with my TA, who did the tedious chasing.

[ExArkie]

13 hours ago, WantedOnVoyage said:

As a happily (and how!) retired "travel professional" (1979-2020) after 41 years, I "could not possibly comment" on this rather astonishing flurry of comments.

 

Except to suggest the choice to forgo the services of a travel agent as one might choose to dispense with an estate agent, plumber, mechanic or doctor is always yours.  It's why they invented the internet... the ability to "do it all" as long as Mr. Google tells you can. And you believe it, too. 

I don't call a mechanic when I need to put air in my car tires, nor a plumber when I need to change a washer in the sink faucet (or several other jobs, but my father was a plumber at one time, so I may have gathered additional information). Similarly, I see no need to involve a travel agent when I want to book a transatlantic on QM2, unless I can get extra "stuff" from the agent (e.g., OBC, reduced price, etc.). It isn't that complicated.

 

I also have over three million lifetime miles on airlines, so booking plane tickets is something I can almost do in my sleep.

Edited September 10 by ExArkie

[exlondoner]

23 minutes ago, tim_london0 said:

Quite,

 

but I didn't ask why should one not be using a TA that has been well recommend to them. 

 

I asked, why do people (here) think that it's normal for others to have just gone and booked this holiday though an everyday TA.  Most of which are just resellers of bucket and spade holiday from a brochure.

 

Most people don't have a recommendation for a great TA.  The just respond to advertising campaigns from majors brands (such as still exist)

I tend to assume most people have more interesting and enjoyable things to do with their free time. I also think a lot of people prefer to make use of expertise when available. Just like cutting the toenails really.

[exlondoner]

1 minute ago, ExArkie said:

I don't call a mechanic when I need to put air in my car tires, nor a plumber when I need to change a washer in the sink faucet (or several other jobs, but my father was a plumber at one time, so I may have gathered additional information). Similarly, I see no need to involve a travel agent when I want to book a transatlantic on QM2, unless I can get extra "stuff" from the agent (e.g., OBC, reduced price, etc.). It isn't that complicated.

Too complicated for me, just as the other two tasks are.

[S1971]

2 hours ago, ExArkie said:

Similarly, I see no need to involve a travel agent when I want to book a transatlantic on QM2, unless I can get extra "stuff" from the agent (e.g., OBC, reduced price, etc.)

 

Quite often TA do just that give "extra stuff" or incentives.

 

"Every little helps" as we say over here.

 

 

[WantedOnVoyage]

In the end, no one really cares (cruise line or travel agent) who you choose to book your cruise with. They really don't.  Most travel agents have plenty of regular clients and all the cruise line wants in the end is bodies in berths. How they get there is of no consequence. You engage an outside professional to do stuff for you or to you as you choose.  Although judging from this remarkable flurry of exchanges, it rather sounds more personal than that.